Focus on fixing NHS rather than disciplining nurse, Sarwar tells Swinney

John Swinney has been told he should focus on fixing Scotland’s NHS, rather than disciplining a nurse for refusing to share a changing room with a trans doctor.

Anas Sarwar told the First Minister that lives are being lost as the scale of the pressure on the health service reaches a “crisis” point.

It comes days after he backed Sandie Peggie, a nurse who brought an employment tribunal against NHS Fife after she was suspended following a complaint about sharing a changing room with a trans medic.

The First Minister has refused to comment on the tribunal – which has prompted MSPs to raise questions around single-sex spaces – saying he does not want to interfere with a live case.

During First Minister’s Questions on Thursday, Scottish Labour leader Mr Sarwar accused Mr Swinney of having broken Scotland’s NHS.

“One in six Scots are on an NHS waiting list, there is an NHS crisis with lives being lost,” he told the SNP leader.

“So, when will John Swinney, (Health Secretary) Neil Gray and this SNP Government stop focusing on disciplining a nurse and instead focus on supporting NHS staff, getting patients treated, clearing the backlogs, stopping the need for patients spending thousands of pounds to go private, and ending the 8am rush for a GP appointment?”

He cited a pregnant woman who he said had been forced to phone her GP more than 50 times in one morning because she was not given an appointment with a midwife within the eight-week target.

“This is the harsh reality of healthcare under the SNP,” he said.

“Pregnant women left anxiously waiting, people in pain forced to go to A&E, and people unable to work because they can’t get the treatment they need.”

Mr Swinney said he is “absolutely focused” on tackling waiting times and improving access to the NHS.

“I am absolutely focused on making sure the needs of the people of Scotland are met by the National Health Service,” he said.

“That’s why my Budget on Tuesday will include a record settlement for the NHS.”

Mr Swinney criticised the Scottish Labour leader for abstaining on the Budget and accused him of “flip-flopping on his positions on a daily basis”.

The jibe is an apparent reference to Mr Sarwar, along with his deputy Dame Jackie Baillie, U-turning Labour’s support for the Gender Recognition Reform (Scotland) Act.

Mr Sarwar said earlier this week: “We should have been much tighter in the conditionality of our support for our amendment [to the Gender Recognition Reform Bill].

“Knowing what we know now, we would not have supported the Bill.”

Mr Swinney said on Wednesday that he does not regret voting for the gender reforms, which he said had been carefully considered and scrutinised by MSPs.

The legislation aimed to simplify the process trans people go through to get a gender recognition certificate in their acquired gender.

It introduced self-identification without a medical diagnosis as part of the reforms.

It was passed by MSPs but was struck down by the then-Conservative UK government which said it violated equalities laws.